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Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch
Dr. Ali Oliashirazi is the professor and chairman of the Department of Orthopedics at Cabell Huntington Hospital. He is the leader of the orthopedic residency program at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.

Chris Harris/The Herald-Dispatch
On Oct. 10, 2008, Dr. Carl McComas displays a robot named "Pearl," which can be controlled via his office at St. Mary's Medical Center. "Pearl" gives physicians a remote presence and can be utilized from the physician's office.

TOP STORY: Health care industry expands in Huntington

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HUNTINGTON — Medical care has come a long way since the early part of the 20th century. In Huntington, services are expanding faster than ever, some say.

Now home to two hospitals, a medical school, a VA medical center and other programs, Huntington facilities continue to train physicians and offer countless services, and the health-care industry has grown into the Tri-State’s biggest employment base.

“We used to have to send patients out of town off and on for complicated conditions. Now we can take care of almost everything,” said Dr. Joseph B. Touma, an ear and balance specialist who came to Huntington in 1971.

Touma said the growing sophistication of the local medical community has been phenomenal and Huntington is on the “cutting edge” in every area of medicine.

“We’re becoming a center of significance,” he said.

Medical facilities have expanded at “dizzying speeds” in Huntington, Touma said. From the heart institute at St. Mary’s Medical Center to the cancer center at Cabell Huntington Hospital, the growth and specialization are impressive, he said.

“I think everyone would be proud and amazed by the growth St. Mary’s Medical Center has seen in the past 85 years,” said Michael Sellards, president and CEO of St. Mary’s Medical Center. “The Pallotine Sisters started their 35-bed hospital with little money and limited resources in 1924. Many of the sisters performed multiple tasks, serving as nurses during the day, and cooks and custodians in the evening. The hospital has gone through multiple major expansions since then, growing to become the largest hospital in the Tri-State, with 393 licensed beds. St. Mary’s is also the largest private employer in Cabell County, with 2,491 employees.”

About three miles away, Cabell Huntington Hospital opened its doors to patients in 1956. The hospital started with 89 beds and 169 employees and now has 303 beds and 2,300 employees, according to information from the hospital’s media relations department.

“In recent years, Cabell Huntington Hospital has grown significantly in scope of services, the number of patients treated and in the number of physicians on our medical staff,” said Brent A. Marsteller, president and chief executive officer of Cabell Huntington Hospital. “Our growth has been enabled by a strong relationship with the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine that helps us define ourselves as an academic medical center where gifted physicians offer the region’s most leading-edge care and treatment.”

The Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University was established in 1977 and is now housed on the campus of Cabell Huntington Hospital, in cooperation with the Huntington VA Medical Center. The school’s first class started in 1978 and graduated in 1981. The first entering class had 24 students. Today’s classes have more than triple that number.

The school has more buildings, residents, fellows, faculty and programs than ever, said Dr. Charles H. McKown Jr., vice president of health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine.

The school has approximately 1,200 graduates, about 330 of whom practice within 50 miles of Huntington, according to Beverly McCoy, School of Medicine spokeswoman.

The school accounts for approximately 60 percent of Huntington’s 460 physicians, either because they are faculty physicians, trained here or were recruited to the faculty, according to information from McCoy.

Since the first CT scanner was installed in 1982 to its current plans for a children’s hospital, Cabell Huntington Hospital also has grown. In 2003, it opened its first Family Medical Center facility in Kenova. Since then, satellite offices have opened in Milton and Barboursville, an urgent care facility opened on 5th Avenue, and a Women’s and Family facility opened on 20th Street.

At St. Mary’s, growth also has been steady and continued this past year with family medical centers opening in South Point, Ironton, Coal Grove and Chesapeake, Ohio.

Marsteller said the successes at Cabell Huntington are a testament to the hospital’s employees. The hospital has seen growth in such areas as its neonatal intensive care unit and emergency and trauma department in the new North Patient Tower.

In 2005, the Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center was dedicated at Cabell Huntington, and in 2007 the $84 million North Patient Tower opened.

“For more than 50 years, Cabell Huntington Hospital has met this community’s health care needs by providing specialized care for patients of all ages,” Marsteller said. “We are proud of our position in this community as a health care leader and look forward to bringing services to this community that will help families remain close to home when they seek medical care.”

Also in 2007, the Marshall University Department of Neuroscience was established, adding a team of neurologists and neurosurgeons to medical staff at Cabell Huntington.

In 2008, St. Mary’s Medical Center opened its new $19 million intensive care units, according to Sharon Shaw, manager of public relations.

St. Mary’s also opened a new $6 million parking garage in 2008, and a newly renovated lobby will open in 2009. Cancer patients also will be served by a new infusion center in 2009.

St. Mary’s also continues to operate its Center for Education, which houses the St. Mary’s School of Nursing, the St. Mary’s School of Respiratory Care and the St. Mary’s School of Medical Imaging. Graduates hold jobs in almost every local hospital. St. Mary’s will relocate its Center of Education to a newly renovated facility in 2009, at a cost of $10 million.

Sister Celeste Lynch and Sister Diane Bushee have been with St. Mary’s for many years.

“I think at St. Mary’s we care for people at the most critical moments in their lives. It could be the joy of childbirth or it could be the sadness of a debilitating illness or death,” Lynch said.

St. Mary’s gives back to the community in many ways, from offering memorials for families to providing educational and employment opportunities.

“We think we make a big contribution to helping with the supply (of staff) so that the patients get the care they need,” she said.

The progress made across facilities in Huntington has been tremendous, said Touma, who is also a professor at the Marshall School of Medicine with privileges at both Cabell Huntington Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center.

“Our population gets the best medical care with any of the best medical facilities anywhere,” he said.

Over roughly the past decade, the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine has seen more than $100 million in new construction, starting with the Marshall University Medical Center in 1998 and including the Byrd Clinical Center, the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Center, an addition to the Forensic Science Center and the Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The school started with just $7,000 in the bank. Today, it has a budget of $120 million, with 60 percent of that coming from faculty activities such as medical care and research.

But, McKown said Huntington would not have a medical school without having a VA in town.

Under the Veterans’ Administration Medical School Assistance and Health Manpower Training Act initiated by Congress, a VA hospital and state university had to be in the same town. The VA agreed to pay for the school for four years if the state agreed to sustain it thereafter, McKown said.

About 11 percent of the school’s budget comes from the state now.

“The state does help us tremendously and their help is critical, but we are self-funded by 90 percent of what we do. That is a tribute to the community, to Cabell Huntington Hospital, St. Mary’s Medical Center and the Veterans Administration hospital,” McKown said.

He said the school’s students, residents and fellows rotate through the VA every day. The facilities work together closely.

“This is the best relationship between a VA and a medical school that I’ve experienced in my career,” said Edward H. Seiler, director of the Huntington VA medical center and who has worked at 10 teaching VA medical centers over the years.

The local VA funds about 30 house staff physicians in resident and fellow positions, Seiler said.

“We work in conjunction with St. Mary’s and Cabell Huntington to establish a rotation for students and residents for their medical education,” Seiler said.

He said a large number of the VA’s medical staff also have faculty appointments at the medical school.

Seiler said the reputation of the Huntington area as a center of medical excellence has grown over the past 20 years because of the Marshall School of Medicine.

“It’s because of the medical school that Huntington benefits from having such a high caliber of medical practice in the community. When you’ve got hospitals like St. Mary’s and Cabell Huntington and the VA in a city of 50,000 people, you’ve got really excellent medical care,” he said.

McKown said staff at the school are very happy with the progress, but it must continue.

“A decade ago, we were just beginning to bear the fruits of a new medical school. We were still a small medical school with limited, very local impact, but we were in a fast accelerating mode. The last 10 years have been absolutely outstanding,” he said. “We hope we’re giving back to the community all that’s been given to us. Our numbers, I think, attest to that.”

He said the number of doctors now in Cabell County is “shocking.”

McKown said staff will continue to work toward various programs, including looking at developing residencies in neurology, neurosurgery and urology and fellowships in medical oncology and geriatrics.

The Huntington VA Medical Center also continues to expand. In the past year, the center has added 100 new staff.

“We’ve gone from a little over 900 employees to a little over 1,000 employees,” Seiler said.

With new surgical programs, developing neurosurgery and new mental health programs, growth is more than apparent at the local VA, he said.

The local medical center was built in 1932 and was almost entirely inpatient in its early days. Today, it has a huge network of outpatient programs, Seiler said, with an estimated 30,000 patients enrolled. He said that’s probably three times the enrollment of the 1960s and ’70s.

“We see about 800 to 1,000 patients a day in our various clinics, at the medical center and our (community based outpatient clinics),” Seiler said.

An additional clinic is also coming to Gallipolis, Ohio, he said.

“We’ve grown tremendously in programs, budget and numbers of patients we take care of,” Seiler said.

Touma said he expects the growth of the local medical community to continue, based on what he’s seen in the past.

“I don’t think we will lag behind any advanced medical community anywhere,” he said.

Nine people from Ohio and West Virginia were killed and 11 others were injured in the Scottown, Ohio, fireworks fire on July 3, 1996. Todd Hall, a 26-year-old brain-injured Proctorville, Ohio, man, was charged with starting the fire with a lighted cigarette. The charges were dropped after he was found incompetent to stand trial and committed to a state mental hospital in September 1996.

In 1972, the Logan County community of Buffalo Creek experienced the most destructive flood in West Virginia history, when a coal waste dam burst and 130 million gallons of water and sludge poured through nearby mining towns. During the Buffalo Creek Flood on Feb. 26, 1972, 125 people lost their lives, 1,100 were injured and 4,000 were left homeless.

On Jan. 27, 1937, the Ohio River crested in the Tri-State in the worst flood in local recorded history. The Flood of 1937 caused the river to reach a depth of 69.45 feet, more than 19 feet above flood stage in Huntington.

The National Weather Service on Monday predicted a "potentially historic" storm on par with some of the biggest to ever hit the densely populated northeastern U.S. Take a look at historic photos of some of the worst snowstorms to hit over the last 60 years, and hit the jump for a countdown of the 10 worst storms.

A fire at the Emmons Jr. apartment building started about 11 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007, and killed nine people. Flames raced through the building, destroying it and the neighboring Emmons Sr. apartment building.

A series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C., area on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, killed almost 3,000 people and caused at least $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage.

Marshall University (white jerseys) lost to Morehead State (dark jerseys) 6-29 in the season opener Sept. 18, 1971, at Morehead. The 1971 team had a 2-8 record under coach Jack Lengyel. Team captain was Nate Ruffin.

August 24, 1971: The Young Thundering Herd's first day of practice in pads -- three weeks before its season opener at Morehead State. Because the young squad was undermanned, contact drills were conducted lightly to avoid injury.

On Nov. 26, 1952, a ward building at Huntington State Hospital, now Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital, caught fire, killing 17 people. Some readers may find these images (and the news story below) disturbing.

President John F. Kennedy visited West Virginia a few times prior to his election in 1960. His victory in West Virginia's primary election is widely credited for spring-boarding him into the White House.

The Huntington Mall, located in Barboursville, opened in 1981, more than five years after initial talks started. Today, the mall averages in the hundreds of millions of dollars in retail trade, changing the landscape of the region’s economic climate.

2011 marks 50 years that the all-black Douglass High School closed. In 1961, Douglass closed its doors as a school and the students integrated with Huntington High. It was a transition that was bittersweet, former Douglass students said -- one that meant new opportunities, but the passing of a time when their world was close-knit and familiar.

Marshall University (dark jerseys) lost to Villanova (white jerseys) 10-23 on Nov. 6, 1976, at Fairfield Stadium. The 1976 team had a 5-6 record under coach Frank Ellwood. Team captains were John "Fuzzy" Filliez and Billy Yanossy.

Marshall University (white jerseys) played Morehead State (dark jerseys) on Sept. 4, 1976, at Morehead. Morehead won the game, 31-14. However, Morehead had used an ineligible player and later forfeited the game. The 1976 team had a 5-6 record under coach Frank Ellwood. Team captains were John "Fuzzy" Filliez and Billy Yanossy.

Marshall University (green jerseys) plays Delaware in a playoff game on Nov. 30, 1996, at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Marshall won, 59-14. The team would go on to win the I-AA National Championship Game against Montana.

Marshall University (green jerseys) plays Furman in a playoff game on Dec. 7, 1996, at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Marshall won, 54-0. The team would go on to win I-AA National Championship Game against Montana.

Marshall University (dark jerseys) plays Appalachian State for its homecoming game on Oct. 13, 1984, at Fairfield Stadium. Marshall won, 35-7. The team would go on to have a 6-5 record under coach Stan Parrish. Team captains were Rob Bowers and Tony Lellie.

Marshall University (dark jerseys) lost to Xavier University (white jerseys) 28-30 on Sept. 29, 1973, at Fairfield Stadium. The 1973 team had a 4-7 record under coach Jack Lengyel. Team captain was Jack Crabtree.

Huntington East High School plays Bishop Donahue High School (McMechen, W.Va.) and St. Francis High School (Morgantown) plays Notre Dame High School (Clarksburg, W.Va.) in the 1980 St. Joseph Invitational tournament on Feb. 28, 1980.

Huntington East High School plays Bishop Donahue High School (McMechen, W.Va.) and St. Francis High School (Morgantown) plays Notre Dame High School (Clarksburg, W.Va.) in the 1980 St. Joseph Invitational tournament on Feb. 28, 1980.

Marshall University (dark jerseys) beat Akron (white jerseys) 13-0 on Oct. 30, 1976, at Fairfield Stadium. The 1976 team had a 5-6 record under coach Frank Ellwood. Team captains were John "Fuzzy" Filliez and Billy Yanossy.